2019 European Championships: Ice Dance

(27 January 2019) The ice dance competition at the European
Championships in Minsk, Belorus, had an excellent level and there is
a great depth of very good couples in Europe. Gabriella Papadakis
and Guillaume Cizeron from France, the big favorites and three time
world champions, won their fifth European gold medal in a row
without any problems, this time with a new world record of 217.98
points. Like in the years before, they excelled by their fluidity,
their flexibility, their feeling for music and their perfect ballet
moves. Their former nickname of “The Torvill and Dean of the 21st
century“ is still correct. They skated the Rhythm Dance to the two
Tangos “Oblivion“ and “Primavera Porteno“ by Astor Piazzola,
performed by Gidon Kremer. The technical panel with the controller
Shawn Rettstatt from the USA awarded them level 4 for three elements,
but only level 2 for the step sequence and they met only two of the
four key points in the first Tango section. GOEs of +4 dominated,
but three elements also had some +5. Their components had an average
of 9.7, with 12 of possible 45 perfect 10.0.

Afterwards Papadakis said: “Tango is a style we
really like, we didn’t have a lot of experience with it, only skated
it once in Juniors. We were really happy when we found out that the
Tango was the style for this year. I think it’s a style that works
well in skating with the speed and the glide. It also gives lot of
room to express ourselves with the dance and the mood but also doing
it with lot of speed and fluidity.“ Cizeron added: “This year, the
key points are really tricky to get. It wasn’t 100% clean on the
first pattern. But we’ve been working a lot on them. It’s pretty
hard to do it with full speed and the passion and expression and get
the key points at the time. I think that is not what we really focus
on when we perform. When we’re at a competition, we try to keep the
feeling and go 100% with the dance and sometimes this makes it a
little harder to get the key points. But we’ll definitely work on
this for Worlds.“

In their free dance to the songs “Duet“ and
“Sunday Afternoon“, both by Rachael Yamagata, the students of Romain
Haguenauer and Marie-France Dubrueil in Montreal had level 4 for all
level elements, plus many plus points for every elements including
the three non-level choreographic elements. GOEs of +5 dominated and
their choreographoic lift and the end even had nine GOEs of +5.
Their components were around 9.9, with 20 of 45 possible 10.0. The
whole program was a unique piece of art.

Papadakis explained: “Every medal for us is a
great accomplishment. We’re really proud of the whole French team, I
think everybody did a really good job and I don’t know when the last
time was that we had two gold medals in two different disciplines
but it must have been a while. We’re very proud to be the first
[placed] nation at this Championship, that also hasn’t happened for
a long time, or I don’t know when.“ He was also asked if he feels he
has won a medal and a half after choreographing Vanessa James and
Morgan Cipres’ short program) and answered: “No, their medal is
entirely theirs, they’ve worked so hard for this. I’m just really
happy and humble to have been part of their choreography. It’s been
interesting to be on that side of the creation and I think it
probably made me understand more what our coaches are going through,
so maybe I’m a little bit less annoying for them now.“

Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin from Russia,
fourth at the Grand Prix Final 2018, won the silver medal with
206.41 points. Their Rhythm Dance to the Paso Doble „Malaguena“, the
Tango Suite Part III by Al Di Meola and a Tango from “Carmen“
performed by Edith Piaf, was excellent as well. Four elements had a
level 4, the first Tango section a level 2, which means that they
met two of the four key points. GOEs of +3 and +4 were frequently
given and their components were around 9.4. Stepanova said: “ We’re
very happy to have surpassed the 80 points, especially at such a
competition as the European Championship. It’s a higher level of
competition now at European Championships. Many things have changed
since 2012 when we competed here at Junior Worlds. We have changed
ourself. It’s already our third European Championships. We are
really happy of how the audience received us here. We remember this
venue.“

They danced their sexy blues to “Am I the One“ by
Beth Hart. Their level were good, only on the parallel step sequence
they had no level 4. Most of the GOEs were +4 and their components
around 9.4, with one 10.0 for interpretation from the British judge
Christopher Buchanan. Stepanova said: “We’re incredibly happy to
have first won bronze medals, then reaffirmed that with a silver.
It’s a big step forward and spurs us on to work further and harder.
I think sensuality and a good connection are the main components of
ice dance so I’m very happy that many people have told us this and
given us compliments about it.“

Like at the Grand Prix Final 2018, Italian couple
Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri won the bronze medal with199.84
points, the first European medal for them. They are the top team of
the Milan dance school of Barbara Fusar Poli and Italy’s dance team
number one after Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte have retired. In
their Rhythm Dance to three Tangos they had threee level 4 and two
level 3 and GOEs of +3 were predominant the components were around
9.0 and the points were close to Stepanova and Bukin. Fabbri
explained: “It’s a very worthy feeling for us because we have worked
a lot throughout our career to get to this point.“

In their free dance they used the soundtrack of
“La La Land“ in an entertaining program with mainly GOEs of +4 and
some +5. A little slip at the choreographic lift near the end did
not cost them many points. They were fourth in the free dance, but
it was enough to stay third overall. Fabbri explained: “Finally we
feel the work we’ve made throughout the years has been rewarded and
of course we’re very proud of what we’ve achieved this season. Next
week I will study a lot because I have an exam at my university in
English in ten days.“

The second Russian couple of
Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov certainly had hoped for a
medal as well after being second at the Grand Prix Final 2018. But
this dream was shattered when Katsalapov fell at the end of the
second part of the twizzles sequence about 30 seconds in the Rhythm
Dance. He hit Sinitsina’s blades and she fell as well. The rest of
the dance was excellent, but they were nine points behind a medal
position. Sinitsina said: “We
were well prepared and fully under control, but there was just this
embarrassing and frustrating mistake. Tomorrow is a new day and we
will do everything we can then.“ Katsalapov was devastated in the
kiss and cry corner, but later said: “I don’t know exactly what
happened. Maybe I hit a tracing in the ice, I’m not sure. I can only
apologize for my mistake and thank the crowd. If they hadn’t
supported us so well I don’t think I could have come back from it.
I’m so disappointed.“

Their free program to the
classical “Air“ by Johann Sebastian Bach and one of his pupils was
an excellent expression dance. They had good levels, components of
around 9.5 and three more points than the Italians but it was enough
only to rise from fifth to fourth place with 193.95 points. “That
was one of the most difficult skates because we wanted so much to
skate fully under control“, Katsalapov said. „What happened
yesterday was so unexpected and we lost so many points, we didn’t
want anything unexpected to happen today.“

Natalia Kaliszek and Maksym
Spodyriev from Poland finished on fifth position with 185.35 points,
which is a very good result for them. Both programs were without any
mistake. They were the only couple to get two level 4 even on the
two Tango sections and their free dance was modern, but they lacked
some highlights or innovative elements.

The British champions Lilah
Fear and Lewis Gibson made a big jump up being only 24th at Worlds
last season and now being on sixth position with 182.05 points. They
train in the world’s most successful ice dance school in Montreal.
Sara Hurtado and Kirill Khaliavin won the battle of the two very
good Spanish ice dance couples, finishing seventh with 180.67 points.
Their nationals rivals Olivia Smart and Adrian Diaz are eighth with
176.84 points. The third Russian couple of Sofia Evdokimova and Egor
Bazin sit on ninth position, earning 175.62 points. The second
French couple of Marie-Jade Lauriault and Romain Le Gac, also from
Montreal, is tenth with 172.33 points. The Rhythm Dance of the
Finnish couple of Juulia Turkkila and Matthias Versluis was another
highlight of the competition and they finished eleventh with 168.34
points. 25 couples competed, 20 of whom reached the free dance.